


Siren Song

by LaurelNymph



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Asexual!Levi, Ereri Week, M/M, Mild Gore, Sirens, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-10
Updated: 2015-09-11
Packaged: 2018-04-20 00:59:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4767617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaurelNymph/pseuds/LaurelNymph
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Survey Corps is thrilled to finally leave the Walls and explore the outside world. Too bad they didn't know more monsters were out there waiting for them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Beyond the Walls

A scratching sound pulled Levi from the haze of sleep. He gripped his pillow tighter, a little irritated that he didn't feel an feverishly-hot body against him. The shit you got used to. Now he couldn’t fall asleep _without_ being overheated. Levi tried to squeeze his eyes shut against the onslaught of sunlight pouring into the room as he asked, "Eren what the fuck are you doing up so early?"

Levi gave up on more sleep. He cracked one eye open to see what his partner was doing. Eren popped out of the bathroom, thick white shaving cream smeared on half of his face and a razor dangling from one hand.

"I was too excited to sleep,” he said. Eren scraped the razor against his face again before continuing, “I think last night you actually slept better than me for once."

Sure seemed like it. He might have been up early, but Levi could still see the bags under Eren’s eyes.

"We'll have matching raccoon eyes today," Levi said. He flopped back over in bed.

"Aren't you excited?" Eren asked. "This will be the first expedition that's actually going further than a few hundred meters away from the walls! We're really exploring this time, not just checking for any leftover Titans.”

Of course it was exciting as hell, but it would be even more exciting after Levi got a few cups of tea into himself. Only when he was in the mess hall with Eren and he started to feel awake did Levi begin to match Eren's enthusiasm. His partner was tearing gleefully into a roll, a tendril of stream rising from his cheek where he'd nicked himself with his razor.

Levi couldn't help but feel grateful for a minute that he had one person that death couldn't rip from his side.

It felt surreal, after a lifetime of dreaming, to grab their packs and head for the docks, knowing they were at last going to be free. Today his and Eren’s joint dream of leaving these cramped, stinking walls was coming true.

There was a special spring in his step walking up the ramp to the new ship the merchants had invested in. It was based off a design lifted from one of the fuck-ton of forbidden books Erwin hoarded with a mast and sails. This would take them down the river threading through the walls, as far as the waterway could take them.

"I hope this river drains into the sea," Eren said, leaning against the ship's railing. Levi hoped so too. After listening to his partner and Armin gabbing excitedly about the water, Levi had started to wonder about it too. Plus he was eager to see Eren’s dream come true. He deserved it after all he'd given to humanity. Eren’s hand crept on top of Levi's and squeezed softly.

* * *

A series of loud thuds and shrieks prompted Levi to raise his voice and say, “Connie, Sasha, you two are supposed to be _mopping_ , not playing pirate.”

“But the deck is already clean!” Sasha said. She lifted her mop above her head and took another swing at Connie, who parried. “We’re not on kitchen duty and Armin won’t let anyone else touch the maps he’s making! We’re bored!”

Yeah, Levi could relate. Travel by ship was fucking weird compared to the usual life in the Survey Corps. The sailors took care of the ship and actually steering it in the right direction. There weren't many chores for the soldiers to do. In other words, it _was_ boring as hell. Still, “You won’t be able to relieve your boredom by actually leaving the ship if you two break each other’s limbs with a mop.”

Those turned out to be the magic words. They—and by they, he meant Armin and Erwin—were mapping the land to see if they could support more settlements near the river. One of the few things to do that wasn’t boring as fuck was leaving the ship and exploring the riverbanks. The threat of not being able to leave the ship got Connie to reluctantly take off the makeshift eye patch on his face.

“We’ll settle this later,” Connie promised.

“If you get any of your dirty blood on the deck you’d better fucking believe you’re gonna be the one to clean it up!” Levi warned him. Connie and Sasha ran off with their mops and Levi got the horrible feeling they were just going to whack the shit out of each other on another part of the deck he couldn’t see.

He was debating whether or not he should do something about that when he heard a shout of, “Levi, come up here!”

Levi craned his neck up and saw Eren waving cheerfully up at him from the crow’s nest. He beckoned Levi to come up and like the dog he’d become, Levi climbed the mesh of ropes up to the top of the mast. As he settled into the crow’s nest, he asked Eren, “What is it?”

Eren cupped Levi’s face in his hands before kissing him.

“It’s nice up here, isn’t it?” Eren said before leaning against Levi’s shoulder. He made a happy noise.

Levi looked out over the crow’s nest. The landscape stretched farther than they could ever hope to see, not a single wall in sight. Green plains spread across the land and big-ass mountains towered in the distance. Ahead of them the river kept flowing. The landscape, everything they were learning about the world filled Eren with obvious joy. His glee was infectious. It was one of the few things that was keeping Levi from going crazy on this fucking tiny boat.

“It’s real nice,” Levi agreed. “Wish it weren’t getting so fucking hot though.”

"I wonder if we're nearing that 'desert' thing?" Eren asked while fanning himself. Thank fuck there was a breeze up here in the uppermost part of the ship.

"It is hot as balls out," Levi agreed. He gave in to the temptation to undo the top button on his shirt. "Didn't you say the desert is hot?"

“That’s what it said in Armin’s grandpa’s old books. I hope we _are_ going to see it soon!”

Levi would have preferred the ocean, because being so close to water it had to be somewhat cool. For now all they could do was throw open the few windows on the ship and try to get some air flow. Later that night, Eren slipped into Levi's bed. Levi liked this part of day best, when Eren and he held hands and talked a bit about their days. Sometimes they wrapped their arms around each other and he liked it fine when they'd kiss. Eren had never complained about how Levi could do no more without feeling his skin crawl with revulsion. This was fine for the both of them, the squeeze on their hearts and whispered, "I love you"s.

* * *

It got dry as hell and hotter than fuck by the day until, to everyone's utter shock, a blue line appeared on the horizon.

Jean squinted as he asked, “What do you think that blue shit is?”

“Maybe it’s a field of blue flowers?” Mikasa suggested. Even with a spyglass Armin couldn’t tell them what it was. Each and every member of the Survey Corps was all twitchy and eager to find out what that line was. The ship’s movement seemed to slow to a crawl with anticipation while they watched that line grow thicker and thicker.

Armin was the first one to realize, “It's the sea!”

And they were sailing directly at it, a lake far more enormous than any of them could have imagined. Everyone on the ship broke out into cheers. It was incredible stretched out before them. The sight became even more impressive when the river started to widen out into a bay. The deep blue water surrounding them sparkled, white waves crashing on its surface.

"I wonder how salty the water is?" Armin mused.

Sasha practically drooled as she said, "I wonder what kind of yummy fish live in it!"

For the first time since they’d gotten on the ship, Levi felt excited beyond belief. This wasn’t like looking at the same riverbanks and plants day after day. This was brand new shit humans hadn’t seen for generations. A fight nearly broke out over who would be the first lucky few to throw down the anchor and take a rowboat so that finally, _finally_ they could step forward onto the thing called sand.

Levi ended up in the first batch with Eren on the beach. It was odd to walk on. The sand shifted and sunk under their feet. Levi felt tired after just a few meters of struggle.

"It's so much easier to walk in it barefoot!" Connie announced. His cry led to everyone ditching their boots and socks to run amuck on the sand. Levi didn't feel much like taking off his shoes until Eren started running in and out of the water and beckoning him in with boyish glee.

“I’m not touching that water, god only knows what kind of gross shit might be in it,” Levi insisted, but he did carefully unlace his boots. The sand rubbed the hell out of his feet. It wasn't powdery like it looked. It was rough instead. It was stickier than it looked too. It clung to his legs and feet and refused to come off, not even later in the bath.

Levi kind of regretted walking in the stuff the next day when he shook sand out of his sheets as he and Eren tried to make their bed. But the sappy smile still plastered to Eren’s face couldn’t make Levi too upset with the beach. It had fulfilled every dream of his partner and more.

Still, Levi was only too happy when it was determined they had enough supplies to explore the coast (especially after they’d tried fishing). They could get the fuck away from the sand. Two days after they had sailed away from the grainy sticky crap they spotted something different in the horizon. From his spot hanging in the rigging Levi could see it was an island. An island that was getting awfully close. Like, they were set to crash straight into it if someone didn’t do something soon. Who the hell was in charge of the wheel?

Levi looked down at the deck, surprised to see that every member of the crew and all the Corpsmen were standing stock-still.

"What the hell are you idiots gaping at?" Levi shouted from the rigging. No one answered him. Instead they all looked toward the island with eyes glazed over. He squinted. What the hell was so damn interesting out there?

His first instinct was Titans.

The creatures sunning themselves on the rocks were obviously not human. Levi had never seen anything like it, not even in his worst nightmares. They had the faces of women with long hair curling down to their waists. That was the only thing remotely human about them. Everything else was monstrous. Feathers covered their limbs and torsos. Their legs ended in thick claws and wings sprouted from their shoulders. This was fucking bizarre.

Levi dimly felt like he’d heard something about this from Erwin, from some ancient tale about a soldier trying to get home from war. But this was the kind of shit that seemed more like you’d find in a fairy tale. Even Titans weren’t this fucking weird.

Weirder still, his comrades were all frozen and the ship was careening toward the sharp rocks the bird women were sitting on. Something was obviously very, very wrong. Levi didn’t even notice the rope burning the crap out of his hands as he scaled back down to the deck as fast as he could. That was when he heard it.

The singing.

The voices were lovely and when he looked around, he realized it was the bird women. It had to be. There weren’t any other living things around. The bird-women were singing and the ship was headed straight toward them while his comrades were incapacitated.

A sick feeling filled him as he realized he’d seen this fucked up scene before. As a boy, Levi had once watched a snake charmer. The man had used music to control the snake and make it move the way he wanted. These creatures were doing the same thing to his fellow soldiers, forcing them to stand stupidly as they steered right into those rocks. Even Armin was dumbstruck. His hands were still on the wheel but he was steering them straight for a shipwreck.

Levi sprinted for him, grabbed him by the shoulder and shouted, "Armin what the hell are you doing?"

Armin didn't answer but luckily he was too dazed to resist when Levi shoved his hands off the steering wheel and spun it back around. Levi prayed, actually fucking _prayed_ , that the ship could turn in time. For a minute, he thought they were going to scrape against the rocks. The ship suddenly lurched port and they were clear of the island.

That pissed off the bird women. They reared up on their hind legs, music dying while they shrieked angrily. As their ship sailed further and further away from the island, Levi heard signs of life from his crewmates.

"What the hell?"

"What am I doing?"

"What happened?" Armin groaned.

"You got hypnotized by those fucking bird things," Levi explained, pointing.

Everyone looked nervously over at the island, where the bird women were still pitching a fit. Mouths wide open they yowled out their song again but they were too far to hear anything but a loud splash right next to their ship. Everyone looked starboard. A head popped up out of the water by the stern of the ship and started swimming wildly for the island.

" _Eren!_ " Mikasa screamed. Only Jean lunging and grabbing her by the waist stopped her from jumping overboard after him.

"What the hell is he doing?" Hange shrieked.

"He doesn't think they're Titans, does he?" Armin fretted. Levi had.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Levi thought, “ _Please don't let Eren have let his insane bloodlust for Titans convince him he has to kill those things!”_

Wary of getting too close to the island and ending up hypnotized again, the crew could only watch in horror as Humanity's Last Hope scrambled out of the waves and onto the rocks. He headed straight for the bird women with a determination Levi hoped meant he would take care of this quickly.

But Eren didn't Shift and he didn't try to kill the bird women. Instead, he sat down next to them with a look of reverence on his face. The bird women calmed down and the faint shrieks turned back into faint singing.

Levi was the first to realize, "He's still fucking hypnotized!"

"Shit, how are we going to get him back?" Hange wondered. "And what _are_ those things?"

"I'm going after him. Jean, let go or I'm breaking your fingers!"

"Don't," Erwin said sharply. "We need all of our soldiers, don't break Jean's fingers and don't throw your life away without a plan to get Eren back."

"I think if you head out there you'll end up just like Eren," Armin said. She _had_ been hypnotized just a minute ago. If that was true, they were so fucked. How could they rescue Eren when they were all weak to those things? Armin once again provided the answer.

"Only Levi was immune earlier. He saved us."

But Levi barely heard him. He was too busy feeling like someone has shanked him in the heart with a rusty dagger. There was Eren, lying in the grass grinning widely. He looked enraptured by the bird women, who preened happily for their victim. Eren looked lovingly on them as they sang. It was the same look Eren so often turned toward Levi. And now he was looking that way at someone else.

He'd forgotten all about Levi.


	2. Monsters and Heroes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi attempts to rescue Eren from the sirens who've hypnotized him.

Levi had to get Eren back from those monsters. But how the fuck was he supposed to do it?

Killing the beasts was an option. Even though killing had always left a shitty taste in his mouth, he could do it for Eren. They had their 3DMG and some rationed gas in the ship’s hold. But Levi would drown if he tried to swim to the island with his 3DMG on. There was no way in hell he could ask his comrades to steer the ship toward the island. The rocks could destroy it. And that was assuming the crew and Survey Corps didn't get hypnotized again if they returned to the island and those shitty bird things started singing again.

If only Levi had the guts to inject that last bottle of Titan serum Erwin had entrusted him with. Maybe he could have swum to the island and then transformed into something large enough to crush them under his heel. There was no guarantee he could do that while keeping his humanity though. That had been put to the test countless times trying to eradicate the Titans. Levi was reluctant to do it, but if that was his only option to get Eren back...

"I think I might have a plan," Armin interrupted. Thank fuck for that. If Armin, one of the most valuable Survey Corps members with unmatched strategizing capability, had a plan, they might not be as screwed as they looked.

"To get Eren back we need to get onto that island without getting hypnotized," Armin began. "I think it was their singing that did it, the last thing I remember before waking up was hearing them sing. Then when Levi steered us away from the island we only came to when we were far away enough that we couldn't hear them anymore. If Levi is immune to their music and if we can get him on the island with his 3DMG, he can slay them. That’s how we'll get Eren back."

"How did Levi snap out of it before us?" Hange asked. They all looked at him curiously.

"I was always fine," Levi said. Whatever shit these bird women were pulling on his comrades, it wasn't working on him. He didn't understand it, but he was grateful as hell.

"Then Levi should be able to go to the island."

"Let me come too!" Mikasa said. She pried Jean’s arms off from around her, insisting, "I'll stuff my ears with cotton so I can't hear them."

"Should we really risk that?" Armin asked. Mikasa looked furious but he kept talking anyway. "It'll only get harder if we have to rescue Eren _and_ Mikasa. I think we should try sending Levi solo first."

Mikasa didn’t look too pleased with that, but gave a curt nod. With that taken care of, Levi asked, "And how am I getting on this deadly island?"

Armin pointed, explaining, "If we sail _around_ the island I think we might be able to approach those trees.”

Now that they were getting further away from the island, they could all see the other side of it. There was a short strip of sandy beach before a thicket of shrubs and trees. The trees looked sturdy enough.

“It shouldn’t be a problem to anchor the 3DMG hooks in those,” Levi agreed. "But you're sure if we sail back you all won't get hypnotized again?"

"We can all stuff our ears like Mikasa said and see if it works?" Armin suggested. “And I think we have some ear muffs with our winter gear.”

God, this plan sounded like such a long shot. A long shot Levi was prepared to do. They simply couldn’t abandon Eren. Not as a valuable soldier of the Survey Corps, and not as a trusted and loved friend. So Levi headed below deck to outfit himself with his 3DMG while the crew figured out how to block out sound.

By the time he'd geared up, Armin seemed to have gotten the hang of it.

"How's it going?" Levi asked.

Armin replied loudly, "I’m not sure what you said but this seems to be working!"

Well after that shout Levi was never going to hear again either. Now he had double immunity against these bird women.

The air was tense as the crew carefully sailed around the back of the island. Levi heard the singing but the crew appeared to be conscious. They stayed wary though and only steered the ship close enough to the island so that Levi could use the 3DMG to get onto it. With everyone alert, it seemed safe enough for Levi to climb on the ship's railing and aim for the thick trees.

The hooks jammed into the wood. A quick tug on the lines showed that the hooks were embedded deeply enough to handle a human swinging from it. Levi took a deep breath before pulling on the trigger on his blade handles at the same time as he jumped off the ship. The zip lines retracted, yanking Levi toward the island. He flew over the water and breaking surf, then squeezed the second trigger to make the hooks pull out of the trees. Levi managed to land safely on the fucking sand again.

He'd deal with a kilo of sand in his boots if it meant he could get Eren back.

Levi started the trek across the island. It wasn't too big but the trees and shrubs grew thickly and it wasn't easy to forge a path through them. His swords were sharp enough to chop through the dried woody stems but there were so many of them it did just about jack shit. Some crappy weeds weren’t going to stop him though. Levi battled on until he'd reached a little clearing. His stomach twisted as the wind blew in his face. He nearly gagged on the stench.

The field was littered with bodies.

Some were skeletons bleached white by the sun, but a few were fresher and it stank of corpses. The worst part was these bird women were almost exactly like Titans. They hadn't eaten the bodies for nourishment, they had apparently been killed in vain. The bodies didn't look hacked up or crunched like they’d been eaten. As Levi caught a glimpse of Eren lying starry-eyed in the grass near the monsters, he got an idea why. The others must have gotten onto this island and been so lulled by the singing they'd simply wasted away listening to it.

There was no way in hell Levi was gonna let that happen to Eren. He shed the blades dulled by his earlier trail blazing and fitted sharp new ones on. There were only three bird women; he wasn’t crazy about the idea but he could slice their necks _easily_ if he had to. Getting close to them would be the challenge. In the open field there wasn't anything to anchor the gear on.

There was one option. The whir of Levi’s zip line shooting out was followed by a pained howl as the hook dug into one of the creatures’ shoulders. The other monsters shrieked angrily as Levi retracted the hook, sending the bird-woman flying.

Levi didn’t want to kill them, not if they harbored humans the way their Titans did but he wasn’t above hurting them to get his lover back. Their morbid singing forgotten, the bird women crowded around the fallen one. Levi sidestepped the corpses planning to grab Eren and leave without harming any more of them.

“Eren!” he cried out when he got close enough. His lover turned to him with a livid look in his eyes.

“Levi, _how could you?_ ” he shouted.

What the _fuck?_ Levi decided to ignore whatever that meant and insisted, “Let’s get out of here while they’re distracted.”

He reached out for Eren’s arm. A loud slap echoed off the rocks before Levi felt anything. Then pain shot through his arm where Eren had hit him. All the bird women turned to look.

“Eren, what the hell?” Levi yelled. Eren looked pissed.

“How could you hurt her?” he demanded. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Fucking hell, he’s still hypnotized!” Levi realized. But the bird women weren’t even singing anymore. Did it take ages to wear off or was his Eren lost forever?

Levi was distracted from his confrontation with Eren by a whooshing sound. He looked over and was subjected to a horrible sight. The uninjured bird women were starting to flap their wings. As they slowly rose in the air, Levi realized just how fucked he was. Titans were bad enough and they couldn’t fly. This was bad. He reached out and grasped Eren’s torso before throwing him over his shoulder.

“We’re getting out of here, Eren!” he shouted as he started to run. All he could hope for was that once he got Eren off this goddamn island the spell might wear off.

“Stop, let go!” Eren screamed, flailing his arms and legs. Levi grunted but kept running, trying to avoid the bird women chasing them. “I wanna stay here!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Levi saw Eren open his mouth and raise his hand. He had no choice: Levi had to dump Eren’s body and use the gear to leap across the meadow to avoid being crushed. He’d only just made it to the tree line when a flash of lighting struck the island.

He was absolutely fucked.

With the bird women trying to swoop out of the sky to kill him, trying to cut Eren out of his Titan form seemed like a bad idea. Levi wasn’t even sure he could concentrate enough to avoid chopping off any of Eren’s body. Shit out of ideas, Levi retreated to the beach he’d landed on to think about what to do now that Eren’s Titan was towering over the island. No sooner had he set foot on the sand before a zip line embedded itself into a tree right by Levi’s head. A few seconds later a blur shot at him. Levi wasn’t surprised to see it was Mikasa.

“What did you do?” she cried out. Levi thought that was a stupid thing to ask. She couldn’t even hear the answer.

“Eren’s gone nuts,” he said anyway.

Mikasa frowned, looking at Eren’s Titan. He stumbled a bit and Levi thought he looked a little confused. Maybe the Titan wouldn’t respond to the hypnosis? The shit-ton of tests they’d put Eren through showed he could hear in his Titan form but maybe the hypnotizing effect of the music wouldn’t reach him. Levi _willed_ Eren to snap out of it and march his Titan straight over here where they could help him.

The bird women still flying in the air drifted closer to Eren’s ears and began to sing. Hope coursed through Levi when Eren’s Titan swatted angrily at them. Then plummeted again as he sank behind the trees peacefully. Fuck. Levi had really hoped that maybe the effect had worn off.

Mikasa turned toward him again. She demanded, “Why didn’t you cut him out?”

That should have been obvious: “I didn’t want to hurt him.”

Mikasa’s face softened a little. Levi wasn’t sure what she’d understood with her ears plugged up and a pair of ear muffs on to boot, but she did say, “I’ll help you.”

“You can’t even hear me,” Levi said. How the hell was this supposed to work? Mikasa attached blades to her gear handles and stormed off anyway, murder in her eyes. Levi decided to follow her through the path he’d forged earlier. The two Ackermans always fought well as a team. Hopefully this time would be no different.

When they emerged from the brush back to the gruesome meadow, they saw Eren’s Titan sitting docilely in the grass. Well shit, it turned out Titans _could_ be hypnotized. The injured bird woman sat at Eren’s feet petting his leg. The other two were perched on his shoulders and combing Eren’s hair cheerfully whilst they sang that fucking song again. The scene might have been cute if Eren’s Titan eyes weren’t glazed over and he weren’t surrounded by rotting bodies.

Mikasa made a disgusted sound, but she seemed unaffected by the singing. So the ear plugs were still working. That was good.

“Did their wounds regenerate?” Mikasa asked. She even knew to keep her voice down.

Levi shook his head at the same time he said, “No.” The bloody gash he’d left in the one bird woman’s shoulder was still there and no steam rose from it. They weren’t healing.

“This would be much easier if you’d managed to kill at least one of them,” Mikasa muttered. “Why didn’t you?”

Levi decided to just ignore that one. So he didn’t want to be a killer, even of monsters. Was that a fucking crime? Not that what he’d wanted mattered. He was going to have to do it anyway. It didn’t seem as if they had much of a choice at this point, they needed to get to Eren’s Titan to cut him out.

“Since you couldn’t manage it I’ll kill the Titans,” Mikasa decided. “You cut Eren out.”

Levi took offense to that, but Mikasa sent her hooks flying into Eren’s Titan’s flesh before he could get a word out. Well, that was one way to deal with the lack of anchoring material in the meadow.

As the hooks embedded themselves into his flesh, Eren let out a howl. The bird women flapped their wings and screeched. Mikasa shot forward fearlessly and swung her blades. The bird women’s screaming only got worse when the head of one of them dropped to the ground, follow by the rest of her body.

The two bird women left attacked Mikasa and Eren’s Titan began to stir. Levi felt awful about deploying his hooks into Eren’s Titan but he wasn’t about to let him harm his own sister. With a click of his triggers, Levi was swinging up in an arc above Eren’s Titan: without hands Mikasa was safe from his hypnotized lashing out. As he spun into a drop, Levi sliced. His blades tore through flesh and Eren cried out again as his hands were ripped from his body.

Using the momentum from the drop, Levi swung up onto Eren’s shoulders. He hacked again straight into the neck. The Titan’s body underneath him writhed in pain and almost knocked him on his ass. Through the gaping hole in Eren’s Titan’s flesh he’d just made, Levi saw Eren’s back. Despite the steam exploding from the wound, Levi leapt into the hole, fighting back a shudder as his boots squelched in ripped, bleeding muscles. With another swing of his blades, he tore more flesh away and even though Eren’s Titan was fighting it the whole time, he started to free Eren’s body.

When his head was free Levi realized he looked unconscious. Better than fighting back because he was still hypnotized. First one, then the other, Levi ripped his lover’s legs and an arm from muscle, aware of Mikasa’s worrisome shouts and angry caws. Unsure of how she was doing, and starting to fear for his own safety as Eren’s Titan jerked beneath him, Levi gave up his desperate scramble to get Eren out whole.

“ _Shit!_ ” he grunted as he slammed a blade on Eren’s arm. The bone splintered underneath the metal and the rest of his arm sheared away. Finally, elated beyond belief, Levi was able to pry most of Eren out.

He emerged from Eren’s Titan in time to see Mikasa decapitate the second bird woman.

“Mikasa, I’ve got him!” he yelled. Remembering that she still couldn’t hear, he waved a tired arm over his head to get her attention. The injured bird woman left in the grass could only screech and sing uselessly as they took Eren’s limp, bleeding body and carried it back to the beach.

Mikasa used her 3DMG to get back to the ship and get their comrades to launch the lifeboat. Levi stayed on the beach with his lover clutched in his arms, waiting for their squad mates to bring them back onboard. He spent every moment _praying_ that when Eren woke up, he’d be normal again.

The waiting was interrupted by a slurred mumble of, “What happened?”

Relief swept over Levi when he realized the hypnosis was broken. Without even thinking about it, he was clutching Eren to him tightly, not giving a fuck about all the blood and chunks of skin getting on his uniform. Eren was back.

“Those monsters lured you to their island,” he explained when his voice steadied. Eren pulled a horrible, constipated-looking face.

“Why did I do that?” he mumbled. “I wanna be with you.”

“It’s fine,” Levi said.

“I’m sorry,” Eren murmured. Levi didn’t get a chance to tell him he didn’t have to be, it wasn’t his fault, before he heard footsteps in the sand.

“He’s awake?” Mikasa asked.

Squinting, Eren said, “What are you doing here?”

“Levi and I rescued you,” she answered gently.

Eren grinned up at them. “My heroes,” he sighed before slipping back into unconsciousness. With Jean and Connie’s help, they managed to get Eren into the lifeboat. Once they’d gotten him onto the ship they quickly drew up the anchor to get the fuck away from that awful place.

As they started to sail away, Levi looked back at the island where the last bird woman was prostrate before her kinsmens’ bodies. Her shoulders shook with what had to be sobs.

Levi didn’t feel much like a hero.

But he had Eren back in his arms. The stump left behind where he’d had to cut him was pouring steam as it grew back. Eren would be okay. They could keep exploring and show Eren the world he’d longed to find (hopefully with fewer monsters). It only came at the price of those creatures' lives. He may not have injected the last of the Titan serum into himself, but Levi still felt as if he’d lost some of his last few shreds of humanity.

He would have to be content with making a monster out himself anyway to stay close to his Eren. It was what he’d always done.


End file.
